College of Health and Medicine

Hello everyone,

I am having a great time as Head of the School of Medicine, and have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the welcome I received from staff, the excellence and commitment they demonstrate and the beauties of living in Tasmania (most especially the weather).  It’s a great place to work, and I reckon there are great things we can do.

The first six months of 2016 has placed us fairly in accreditation season.

To date, we have had accreditation visits for MBBS, the Pharmacy programs and Psychology programs, in that order.

And just when I thought that there was a chance to draw breath, I was informed last week that it was time to start work on the Paramedicine accreditation.

Accreditation is a really important activity for any professional program.  At its most basic  level, it allows us to offer programs from which our graduates can enter a variety of professional careers.  To see it only in those terms, does, however, miss the opportunities that accreditation presents.  It allows us to reflect on whether we are offering the best possible program and how the program matches the needs of community and industry partners. It allows us to bring everyone together to reach a common understanding of what we are doing and why, and it opens our programs to the scrutiny of colleagues, who are invariably both perceptive and generous in their commentary.

It is premature to talk of the outcomes of the accreditation visits, but each was extremely well organised, and presented our best profile, while at the same time being honest about challenges we face.  I would like to particularly thank those who were involved in preparation of documentation, met with the accreditation teams, and, most especially, did all the “backroom” stuff to ensure everyone knew where to go, and were appropriately fed and watered.

A consistent comment from each accreditation team was the reception they received, and, to me, that says so much about the culture of the school that I am so proud of.

To conclude this short blog, I would like to thank a number of people who have taken on new leadership roles in the school.  These include Mike Garry, Associate Head of Psychology, Ros Bull, Associate Head for Learning and teaching (and a convert from the “dark side” (School of Health Sciences) and Anne-Marie Williams, Associate Head for Paramedicine.  With their addition to the fantastic team we already had in place, we now have a full complement, which augurs well for the future.

Ben Canny